when dick and i started the center back in 1983, it was our first dedicated foreign policy center at the heritage foundation. back then asian security was all about what's happening here in the cold war. from that perspective, study of the soviet union might have made a lot more sense. dick and i, as we talked it through, talked about the potential that someday it might even be conceivable that u.s. trade with asia would actually even equal our trade with what was going on across the atlantic. today, it's much greater than our trade across the atlantic. we have been blessed by the insights of many dear friends in asia. we have over the years seen the remarkable economic growth and economic development in asia. it's been our very great pleasure, in fact, to recognize that in terms of economic freedom, as it has evolved throughout asia in specific countries and indeed throughout the region. we always knew that our good friends in japan and that the u.s.japan mutual relationship, both the mutual defense treaty and our bilateral general relationship would be central. but we also thought